SMALL-MOUTHED AND LARGE-MOUTHED BASS 93 



where it gobbles down anything which comes in its way, 

 from sunfish to snakes or young muskrats. 



I have frequently caught fish weighing not more than 

 two or three pounds with rock bass in their stomachs the 

 size of a man's outstretched hand. 



In rivers, where currents run strongly, it is a game fish, 

 and will put up a fight like the small-mouthed bass; and, 

 as it grows to a much larger size, there are many anglers 

 who prefer it to its smaller brother. 



It will also take any kind of artificial or natural fly, 

 especially towards evening; and one may wade along the 

 edge of a pond or walk along a river bank, and get as good 

 sport, where they are plentiful, as with the speckled trout. 

 They grow rapidly, even under difficulties, and to a great 

 size, it being no uncommon thing to catch one weighing 

 five or six pounds; and occasionally they have been taken 

 weighing ten to twelve pounds. Their flesh, naturally, 

 from their mode of living, is not very clean or sweet, and 

 especially in the hot summer months, is not much better 

 than that of the pike. If, however, one takes them from 

 clean water, their flesh is just as delicate and as firm as 

 that of the pickerel or perch. 



They are very savage when young, much more so than 

 any fish I know, and will eat one another when nothing else 

 is in sight. Only a short time ago I saw a little green bass, 

 about two inches in length, chase a silver shiner close to the 

 edge of a pond, and, as the latter jumped to escape, he 

 seized it in his mouth, while the impetus of his rush carried 

 him out on the shore; and I picked him up, with the shiner 

 well down his throat and its tail sticking out of his mouth. 

 The shiner was as long as himself, and when I threw them 

 both back together into the water, he was nothing daunted, 

 but seized his prey again, half swallowed him and, like a 

 flash, disappeared from view. 



